Leeser’s plan consists of 230 condominiums and 468 rental units, a breakdown that may be mirrored in whichever architect and developer’s plan won the project. The entirety of the site will encompass 1.2 million square feet of development, including 200,000 square feet of retail space, and has addresses spanning 450-458 Fulton Street as well as 217 Livingston Street.

The scheme would have divided the residential between the two towers, with the taller building rising 910 feet. That would’ve made it the tallest skyscraper in Brooklyn, though the height of the competition’s winner could be substantially shorter.

The Fulton Street corridor has always been a primary retail destination for Brooklynites, but with the area’s redevelopment, it should become a much broader draw. The concentration of shopping has already been upped significantly with the development of City Point, and revitalizing the old Macy’s garage with both retail space and new apartments will further the process on a block that has, until now, been geared towards serving automobiles.

We also have a rendering of Ismael Leyva’s submission for the site, though the status of this proposal is also up in the air. This version would have featured two similarly-sized residential towers above the retail space, in a similar configuration to the Leeser-designed plan, but without the height.

With no design formally announced just yet, it should come as no surprise that the project has no confirmed completion date at this time.

The second one looks kinda like a scaled up version of Philly's East market

The "what it will replace" in the OP doesn't show up for me, but maybe that's for the better. Part of this project involves tearing down a real butt-cheese parking garage which unfortunately involves multiple ownerships AFAIK....

As soon as I get my Flickr account back in order I'll try to post pics of the area when I was in Brooklyn a while back....

This whole thing pretty much started when Macy's decided thay wanted a whole new downtown store built from the ground up to replace the building it inherited from Abraham and Straus (history of the A&S store here)

Remember those ambitious plans that Macy's had to renovate its Downtown Brooklyn flagship? Well, the company has pretty much thrown them in the trash. WWD is reporting that the company is considering selling the location, taking advantage of good pricing for an up-and-coming neighborhood.

With real estate prices in that area currently going for $300 to $400 a square foot, Macy's could stand to earn $300 million from selling the space that totals 841,000 square feet—"more than enough to fund a new, more compact and productive store," the paper writes.

And that store could be just across the street. WWD says that the department store owns the adjacent parking lot, and that property has been considered for development.

"We are studying ways to improve the Brooklyn store, but really have no comments to make at this time," a Macy's spokeswoman told the paper.

Part of the reason why the original renovation plans may be abandoned could be due to the complicated structure of the building—since it's an amalgamation of three formerly separate buildings, floor and ceiling heights are not uniform throughout.

Another route could be to redevelop the existing structure with apartment units on higher levels and a shrunken version of the department stores on the first few levels, á la the forthcoming Nordstrom.

"I believe they have quite a few options," an unnamed real estate president told the paper. "The building has a lot of problems, making a renovation very complex and very expensive. To start again with a new store would probably be smart."

The old 450-458 Fulton Street and possible plan for the building, image by Beyer Blinder Belle/Brookfield

217 Livingston Street,image by Beyer Blinder Belle/Brookfield

Quote:

=========
Now, YIMBY has the first reveal of potential plans for the old garage at 11 Hoyt Street (and a neighboring structure at 450-458 Fulton Street), which may be reborn as 217 Livingston Street. Per a piece by The Real Deal last August, the garage comes with 584,000 square feet of air rights, and Macy’s is also requesting that any developer build a 300,000 square foot store.

The images come from a proposal by Brookfield, which is apparently in contention for the purchase of the site, though representatives did not respond to YIMBY’s request for comment. Beyer Blinder Belle is behind the design.

While plans are far from final, Brookfield’s vision looks to depict the refurbishment of the existing garage into a major expansion for Macy’s, likely fulfilling the demand for 300,000 square feet of retail. Besides re-using the old garage, a very tall and glassy residential tower is also featured in the images, though its entire height is not apparent.

========

Also of importance is the integration of the old A.I. Namm & Son Department Store into the new project. Located at 450-458 Fulton Street, Brookfield’s plan would expand Macy’s into its base, though signage would be much more prominent on Livingston Street.

Land records indicate that the Macy’s assemblages remain on the market, and per The Real Deal’s report, the garage at 11 Hoyt Street may present a tricky sale. Confusingly, a separate owner from Macy’s – Crown Acquisitions — actually owns several small parcels underneath the existing parking garage, which means that any buyer must deal with demands from both sellers.

The scheme would have divided the residential between the two towers, with the taller building rising 910 feet. That would’ve made it the tallest skyscraper in Brooklyn...

Careful with those fighting words. For the past few years, every new "Brooklyn's tallest" has been topped by something else. And with the two towers on Flatbush being potentially higher, a battle could be ignited for the final crown.

__________________NEW YORK. World's capital.

“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.

The nine-story 422 Fulton Street will be expanded by five stories. The first four levels will be the Macy's. Upper 10 levels are offices.

Tishman plans to redevelop the five-story parking garage at 11 Hoyt Street/217 Livingston Street. It's not known if 450-458 Fulton Street is going to be purchased/incorporated. It also doesn't appear Macy's is requiring new space in this part of the redevelopment.

Macy's downtown Brooklyn store is shrinking—and getting an upgrade in the process.

The department-store chain plans to retain four of the nine floors of its Fulton Street site. The remaining five will be sold to real estate developer Tishman Speyer for $170 million in cash. Macy's will receive $100 million from Tishman over the next three years for renovations.

"In recent years, it has become clear that our Fulton Street store requires major improvements in order to serve the Brooklyn of today," said Chief Executive Terry Lundgren in a statement. "We invested the time and resources necessary to fully study and understand the opportunity for making a major positive impact on Brooklyn."

Mr. Lundgren has been talking about renovating the store, first opened in 1865 as Abraham and Straus, for years.

The project is a first in Brooklyn for Tishman, which plans to develop its portion of the property into 10 floors of office space. It will also buy Macy's parking facility on Hoyt Street.

Macy's, which employs 490 staffers at the store, all of whom are expected to remain, plans to convert its 378,000 square feet of shopping space on nine floors to 310,000 square feet on five floors, including the basement. It will refurbish the interior to allow for more merchandise, uncover windows to add more light, upgrade the restrooms and install new elevators and escalators. The company's photo studio, which had been located at the building, is moving to a new 150,000-square-foot facility in Long Island City.

High on that list is a 60-year-old, five-story parking garage across Hoyt Street from Macy's Brooklyn flagship store—a plot large enough to hold an approximately 580,000-square-foot residential tower. And while the department store is keeping mum on any plans, that hasn't stopped developers from salivating over its lot, as well as two nearby street-level lots owned by Edison Properties with a total of 31,000 square feet.

__________________“If I have done the public any service, it is due to my patient thought.” ― Isaac Newton

Developers behind the Macy's building renovation in Downtown Brooklyn are seeking funds for the project through the EB-5 Program, The Real Deal reports.

Through the EB-5 Program, foreigners who invest at least $500,000 into a particular business which will create at least 10 jobs are provided a green card.

Tishman Speyer, the firm that's developing the Macy's building at 422 Fulton Street, is looking to generate $60 million through this program. Those funds will account for about 12 percent of the total cost of the project - the rest is being provided by the developer and through a construction loan.

Tishman Speyer signed a $170 million deal with Macy's last year to redevelop their space in Downtown Brooklyn. Macy's will continue to occupy the first five floors and get a $100 million renovation courtesy the developers. The floors above that will be redeveloped into office space.

Tishman's EB-5 financing plan is not unique and has in fact been increasingly used by developers in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, according to the Wall Street Journal. Just last week it was revealed that Hudson Companies was trying to raise $110 million through the EB-5 Program for its Brooklyn Heights library redevelopment project.

Last year saw the highest demand for green cards through this program, as part of it is set to expire later this year, according to the WSJ. Applications rose to 17,691 from 11,774 the previous year. There's a limit of 10,000 each year, and projects can get delayed for years as a result.

The program has generated controversy because it was created to help rural areas or urban centers with high rates of unemployment, but developers have been able to circumvent those stipulations so far, according to the WSJ.

New details have emerged regarding department store giant Macy’s $100 million revamp of its Downtown Brooklyn location – including renderings depicting a spruced-up interior featuring new columns and ceilings, metal-and-glass canopies over entrances and escalators wrapped by video screens.
Demolition work will begin in the next several weeks at 422 Fulton Street, with the department store to remain open during the overhaul. The renovation will transform the lower level and first four floors of the 11-story building that are occupied by Macy’s; developer Tishman Speyer acquired the upper floors of the property, as well as air rights and an adjacent parking garage, for $270 million in January.

That investment will help finance the 143-year-old building’s makeover, according to the Wall Street Journal, with the store shrinking from roughly 378,000 square feet to around 278,000 square feet in the process.

Tishman Speyer has plans for its portion of the property, which it intends to redevelop into offices. The Rockefeller Center-based development firm is looking to raise $60 million in mezzanine financing through the federal EB-5 visa program for the redevelopment, as The Real Deal reported last month — though that would account for just 12 percent of the $491 million Tishman Speyer is looking to raise for the project.

Macy’s recently tapped Tishman Speyer to help advise a real estate strategy that could include store redevelopment projects nationwide. The department store is looking to sell partnership stakes in several of its national locations, including its iconic Herald Square store – with Tishman Speyer said to be among interested investors.

LEESER Architecture Dreams Up an 80-Story Supertall for Downtown Brooklyn Macy’s Site

AUGUST 18, 2016
BY DANA SCHULZ

Quote:

In April, initial details were released about Downtown Brooklyn‘s Macy’s $100 million interior makeover, which included new columns, fluted ceilings, metal and glass entrance canopies, and video screens surrounding the escalators. This came after Tishman Speyer inked a $170 million deal with the department store in January, in which they’ll remodel the 11-story Art Deco building’s top five floors into offices. As part of the deal, Tishman also took control of the connecting Hoyt Street parking garage, a site that was speculated may give way to a supertall, mixed-use tower. Today, CityRealty.com posted a set of renderings from architecture firm LEESER showing a glassy tower rising from the existing department store. Although it is not the design being considered by Tishman Speyer, it does give us a taste of the type of modern development that could climb from the coveted DoBro address.

For the Fulton Street site, the LESSER devised a 910-foot, 80-story tower that would rise atop the 1865 Macy’s building, along with two glassy 390-foot high rises for the garage site. The 1.2 million-square-foot main tower would have 230 condos and 468 rentals, while the towers to the east would have 248 condos, 308 rentals, 200,000 square feet of retail space, and a public plaza.

LESSER’s design would preserve Macy’s existing Art Deco-style facade and allow the store to remain open during construction, which would have been welcome news considering the company recently announced it will be closing 100 of its 675 department stores across the country.

Officially, work on the existing structure is expected to be completed by the fall of 2018; no word yet on what the design to follow will be.

A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that LESSER’s design was chosen for the Macy’s site. Reps for Tishman Speyer have informed us that this design was not commissioned by the development team, nor is it being considered.

__________________NEW YORK. World's capital.

“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.

Rob Speyer’s heavy lift
The Tishman Speyer CEO has supersized his family’s company, but can he shoulder all the weight?

April 01, 2017
By Katherine Clarke

Quote:

...Now, after years of very careful dealmaking, Speyer is once again upping the ante. Perhaps most notably, he’s steering his company away from owning and operating cash-flowing office buildings and toward more commercial and residential construction.

He’s plowing capital into a range of ground-up projects and conversions citywide — including a mixed-use tower in Downtown Brooklyn, a five-tower project in Long Island City and a massive Hudson Yards skyscraper — at a time when some analysts forecast potential oversupply in those areas. The firm also has a slew of projects and holdings in other cities, including Los Angeles, Shanghai, London, Frankfurt and Rio de Janeiro.

As for the company’s first project in Brooklyn, Speyer plans to convert the upper floors of a Downtown Brooklyn building on Hoyt Street, formerly owned by Macy’s, into the “Starrett Lehigh Building of Brooklyn” with creative offices for the hip, tech set.

Tishman Speyer paid $270 million for the top five floors along with the rights to develop a tower on a garage site next door. The company is currently in the planning stages for that project, Speyer said.

__________________NEW YORK. World's capital.

“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.

Back in August 2015, Tishman Speyer announced that it had acquired 422 Futon Street, the longtime home of Macy’s in Downtown Brooklyn.

The real estate development firm’s first project in Brooklyn, Tishman Speyer plans to convert the upper five floors of the Macy’s building “into the ‘Starrett Lehigh Building of Brooklyn’ with creative offices for the hip, tech set,” Rob Speyer, the company’s CEO, told the Real Deal in a recent profile.

Macy’s will continue to operate in the lower four levels of the building, consolidating its sales floors to 310,000 square feet. Tishman Speyer purchased the top five floors from the retailer along with the rights to develop on the adjacent parking garage site at 11 Hoyt Street for $270 million, according to the article.

Tishman Speyer will convert the levels above Macy’s into office space, while across Hoyt Street, the five-story garage, home to artist Steve Powers‘ much-loved mural “Love Letter to Brooklyn,” includes 584,000 square feet of air rights, according to New York Yimby.

Tishman Speyer is “currently in the planning stages for that project,” Speyer tells the Real Deal, with the garage, and the mural, likely to be demolished to make way for a brand new tower.

__________________NEW YORK. World's capital.

“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.

Tishman Speyer, one of the city’s largest and oldest commercial landlords, is making its first foray into Brooklyn. The developer, which owns such trophy office properties as Rockefeller Center and the Chrysler Building, is constructing a 620,000-square-foot office tower on top of the Macy’s department store in Downtown Brooklyn.

The $500 million project will integrate the top four stories of the existing Macy’s structure at 422 Fulton Street with new construction, to create a 10-story building. The new tower is being constructed speculatively, or without an anchor tenant, and will be ready for occupancy in mid-2019.

“Twenty-first-century real estate is defined by a ‘live-work-play’ dynamic,” said Rob Speyer, the president of Tishman Speyer. “Brooklyn has mastered ‘live-play,’ but now it needs world-class office space for ‘work.’”

The Tishman tower is the latest in a wave of speculative office construction in Downtown Brooklyn in recent years.

Other projects include One Willoughby Square, a 500,000-square-foot tower being built by a partnership of Forest City Ratner Companies and JEMB Realty. Another is 625 Fulton Street, a 36-story tower being developed by the Rabsky Group.

In addition, the Pioneer, a 260,000-square-foot office building at 41 Flatbush Avenue built by Quinlan Development Group and Building and Land Technology, is nearing completion.

The surge in speculative office buildings follows a period of residential development. Since 2004, when the neighborhood was rezoned to allow for more office and residential development, more than 9,400 apartment units have been built in Downtown Brooklyn. There are nearly 5,200 more under construction and roughly 6,000 in the pipeline, according to the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, a local development corporation. Six new hotels have been built in the area since the rezoning, with two more under construction and one in the pipeline.

Developers are betting that the many new residents in the area, as well as the neighborhood’s proximity to several subway lines and the Long Island Railroad, will generate sufficient demand for the new office space.

“I see three factors at play,” said Paul Travis, a developer and the managing partner at Washington Square Partners. “We are offering quality office space at a lower price point than Manhattan; there are tax incentives available for companies that come to Brooklyn; and, last but not least, the fact is that Brooklyn is where the talent pool is located.”

Mr. Travis teamed with Christopher Conlon of Acadia Realty Trust to develop City Point, a 1.8 million-square-foot mixed-use project at 445 Albee Square West, with tenants that include the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and a soon-to-open Trader Joe’s. The project is currently marketing 20,000 square feet of office space with an asking rent of around $55 a square foot. By comparison, asking rents in Lower Manhattan are $62 a square foot, while in Midtown they are nearly $84 a square foot, according to fourth-quarter figures from the brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield.

Downtown Brooklyn has a total of 17 million square feet of office space, and the new office construction is expected to add two million to three million square feet, according to the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. The vacancy rate in the area is very tight, at just 3.1 percent.

“We get calls from companies wanting to move to Downtown Brooklyn, but with the lowest commercial vacancy rate in the city, there is nothing available,” said Regina Myer, the president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. “We are losing these jobs to other neighborhoods and even cities outside of New York, so having this new Class A office space is critical.”

Real estate professionals are closely eyeing the Pioneer Building at 41 Flatbush, the first of the new office towers to be completed, with its temporary certificate of occupancy expected later this month.

“The challenge is that there are no rental comps for the neighborhood yet, so everyone is closely watching this first lease to set the base rent,” said Andrew Sasson, a senior director at Eastern Consolidated, referring to the lack of deals for offices larger than 10,000 square feet in the $50 per square foot range.

The building has yet to secure an anchor tenant or any signed leases. It does have a lease out to a tech company for a midrise floor, according to Joseph Cirone, a senior director at Cushman & Wakefield, which is marketing the office space. Even though it does not yet have a tenant, “There has been a lot of activity,” Mr. Cirone said, noting that the building’s asking rents were averaging in the mid-50s range.

A few blocks from the Pioneer, Tishman Speyer has already begun work on its new property. Interior demolition work and structural reinforcement are underway, with the external construction scheduled to begin early next year. Macy’s currently occupies two buildings: an eight-story structure built in 1930 and an adjacent four-story cast-iron structure that was built in the early 1870s by Andrew Wheeler, for whom the new office tower will be named.

The Wheeler will integrate the top four stories of the building from 1930 with new construction. The new construction will rise above the adjacent building, creating four stories with floor plates of 90,000 square feet each and six stories ranging in size from 30,000 to 60,000 square feet.

The project’s architects, Joey Shimoda of Los Angeles and Perkins Eastman, have designed terraces on eight floors that will total about one acre of outdoor space, as well as a full floor of amenities. There will be 130 bike stations in the basement, with lockers and showers, for those who bike to work.

“This building will combine the best of vintage real estate and contemporary design, giving tenants the feeling of an old warehouse but without losing all the amenities of new construction,” said Mr. Speyer, who took over as sole chief executive of the development firm in 2015.

Because of the cost and complexity of building in New York City, speculative office construction is relatively rare, and has a mixed record of success. The office tower 11 Times Square, for example, opened in 2011 with just one tenant and more than half of the building vacant; 510 Madison Avenue, which opened in 2009, also spent several years struggling to fill its offices.

These buildings were constructed during a recession, however, and developers in Downtown Brooklyn are hopeful their speculative buildings will buck the trend.

As part of the deal, Macy’s will continue to own and occupy the first four stories of the building, and the department store will operate throughout construction.

Tishman paid Macy’s $170 million in cash for the space and will pay an additional $100 million over three years, which Macy’s is using toward renovation of its store. This is the second deal that Tishman Speyer has struck with Macy’s. In a separate transaction, Bloomingdale’s, which Macy’s owns, is leasing 550,000 square feet at a Tishman Speyer building under construction in Long Island City, Queens, to serve as corporate offices.

With the addition of the Wheeler, Tishman Speyer has nearly eight million square feet under construction or in the pipeline in New York City, the largest amount of new development in the city in the company’s history.

“We are participating in the diversification of the city’s office core beyond Midtown,” Mr. Speyer said. “Real estate has become a recruitment tool — it is no longer just four walls and a floor. The expectations on landlords are much greater.”

__________________NEW YORK. World's capital.

“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.